Shady Aftermath

In the aftermath of the huge explosion here in Toronto on Sunday, residents of the affected areas try to put their lives back together. Most have been allowed to return home but a few streets closer to the epicenter of the blast remain uninhabitable for the moment due to structural damage to buildings and asbestos fumes in the air.

Two dead (the firefighter and one worker at the plant) and a few injured but tens of millions of dollars in damage. Still it seems like its only luck and god's grace that more lives weren't lost though. There are two schools close to the accident site which could have filled with kids if this had not happened at night and in the summer and what if this explosion had happened during the day when residents were milling around the neighborhood? God's grace I say.

The question or questions remain with us though. Why was a propane plant allowed to build in the middle of a residential area? Its not like the plant was there prior to the housing. Nope the housing has been around for a long time while the plant was only granted permission to build there three years ago.

Apparently residents complained but the city is sort of helpless to do anything once the Province gives permission for an industry to build in your neighborhood. And while the city would like propane plants and their ilk to be a minimum of about 1.6km from housing the province allows propane plants to literally set up shop next door. Just lovely!

Seems to be a reoccurring motif regarding life in Toronto lately. The city council is ineffectual, the mayor seems to always be out of town when crap happens (not blaming him for being out of town though its just luck of the draw) and the province could give a damn. Great way to run a supposedly "world class" city.

Also it has come to light that the propane company, Sunrise Propane may not be have been entirely on the up and up.

They have operated under a variety of names possibly to avoid indemnity and seems to have forged documents in the past to get out of paying their debts. Makes one wonder right? This explosion could just be a fluke accident but when you start seeing a company with shady dealings like that in its past, it doesn't exactly fill you with confidence that they were operating under the proper guidelines and codes. Who knows how they were running that plant and if its possible some negligence or attempt to cut corners could be responsible for what happened.

I guess the reports will come out eventually and we'll see what really happened but for now you just have to wonder.